Summer's greener pastures

Raviver

Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay take the first round. Calcutta, Madras, Chandigarh and Pune will join the bandwagon a little later.

All of which is very plausible. What's unbelievable are the prices - shirts for Rs 650-Rs 900, trousers for Rs 1,700, jackets for Rs 2,200, dresses for Rs 1,725 - all with Ravi Bajaj quality-and-finish chaap.

As the capital's western wear pasha declares, "India is a very price-sensitive market and I want to cater to it. Designing haute couture is fine because it satisfies my creative sensibilities, but ready-to-wear will get me to the masses and widen my customer base. It's my B&B (bread 'n' butter) line. That's what designing is all about."

Atta boy, Ravi, we love you all right. Here's hoping you enjoy your sandwiches after the caviar.

Which brings us to the fact that Indian designers are looking for greener pastures, so what if said pastures may be located overseas.

Rohit Bal

The Igedo fashion fair (in Dusseldorf, Germany) saw designer Wendell Rodricks try his luck in 1995, followed by a battery of eight Indian designers in 1996. Raghuvendra Rathore was part of the Hong Kong fashion fair. Bobby and Manju Grover displayed their collections in Istanbul, at an international fashion contest. Gitanjali Kashyap and Rohit Bal sell at Bijenkorf in Holland. Ritu Beri not only dresses up Indian brides but sells at Liberty (UK) and Silk Heritage (USA). And Ritu Kumar's exclusive store in London is giving the westerners a new image of Indian ethnic wear.

On the other side of the coin, the Indian fashion market holds a lot of appeal for foreign fashion czars. There's Versace, Ferre, Pal Zileri and Verri in the men's wear section. S T Dupont, the renowned French label for lighters and pens, feels that its men's wear line is right for the Indian male. Liz Claiborne, the mature American woman's label, wants to dress its Indian counterparts. And German labels like Comma, Mondi, Joseph Janard and K S Stelmann came with the first German fashion show in Bombay to sell their styles.

Well, nothing like a fair and fashionable exchange. You dress like us. We dress like you. Fashion, as a uniting world force, is proving better than all the councils and committees put together.

When it comes to beauty though, and plain stylishness, the Indian sari takes the cake. It is still creating so many waves all over the nation that designers of ready-to-wear and haute couture have realised the wisdom of including sari and blouse sets in their collections.

Bobby and Manju Grover started it all in the late '80s, with specially embroidered cholis and matching saris. Since then, right from maestro Tarun Tahiliani to Krishna Mehta, Rohit Bal, J J Valaya, Rina Dhaka, Wendell Rodricks, Hemant Trivedi and Arzan, they are all creating those dazzling sari-blouse combinations.

The prices vary from a gold zardosi blouse and black sari by Arzan for Rs 7,500 to a Wendell Rodricks satin twosome halter choli and sari for around Rs 10,000 to, maybe, a Bobby-Manju Grover set for approximately Rs 25,000. For designers have begun to realise that there could be no safer wicket than this national favourite.

Meanwhile, summer's here in all its hot, sweltering glory. The only cool reprieve? Designer stores all over the country are racing to into Spring Summer 1997, trying to outlaunch each other. Sale offers are so tempting, there are queues waiting outside boutiques for the shutters to rise.

A fashion freak was ecstatic at the Krishna Mehta outfit, which she picked up at a steal for just Rs 1,000 at Mehta's discount

Krishna Mehta

sale. Meanwhile, Ensemble and The Oak Tree, both joined the bandwagon with massive 50 per cent discounts. Predictably, a mad scramble ensued at both stores.

In fact, metal can just about create that same ecstatic effect. All over the world, people covet that glittery yellow metal - gold! Except for us Indians, though. We've given that whole saga a slightly different twist.

Of course, we still chase after that divine metal - only, we've narrowed our attention to those bits that come with world class designer labels. Like Cartier, Tiffany and, now, Gold Master, all of which have scented Indian shores.

Tiffany and Gold Master, brought to India by Group Beautiful, are available at their very swanky Beautiful Boulevard while Cartier has been brought to India by Ravi and Mina Chawla of Ravissant.

Tiffany offers genuine Paloma Picasso while Cartier's tribute India is revealed in its Tanjore, Bamboo and Panther collections.

Cartier's Trinity ring

None of the brands, though, are experimenting with diamonds or precious stones. It's gold - either 18 or 24 carat - all the way.

Prices may be a trifle higher than the west, but no one's complaining. Especially if it allows you to flash that genuine Cartier Trinity ring for only Rs 30,000.

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